Tuesday, February 21

JANIS IAN

Let's send a little old-school love out to Janis Ian, whose new album, Folk is the New Black, hits U.S. retail shelves today.

Of course, Ian is best known for her song "At Seventeen," which many deride for its on-its-sleeve, maudlin sentimentality. As somebody who was a kid in the '70s and listened to a lot of such songs on AM radio, I have a certain, no-doubt-unholy attraction to these types of ditties. (Maybe tomorrow I'll post Charlene's "I've Never Been to Me" and that thing where somebody leaves Richard Harris' cake out in the rain.)

Ms. Ian has been a somewhat mercurial performer and personality over the past 30 years, but she deserves at least some kind of credit for taking on subjects like sexual identity and self-esteem long before it became fashionable to do so.

From the LP Folk is the New Black, 2006 >>>[MP3] "Folk is the New Black"